Ch. 2: I'm an unknown person?
I sat beside Hinata in the restaurant, Barbe-Q, while Kiba sat in front of me as we were eating barbecue. Kiba had tried several times to start a conversation with me by asking questions about my private life, but failed.
"You know, you remind me of Shino. You two really are related to each other." Kiba said while he chewed on a bite of meat.
"We are nothing alike, except for the bugs." I said as I added more of my homemade barbecue sauce I always brought with me.
"Come on, you are totally alike. You are both quiet, strong and smart. I'll bet you're in for bugs too, and you always speak in mystery, like Shino. So don't come here and say you are nothing alike." Kiba anounced. Akamaru, whom I learned was the dog's name, whimpered by his place on the floor, but were ignored by us all.
Did he just call me smart? And strong? No one else than sensei and Ion have called me that.
"Be nice to her, Kiba-kun. And just because they are siblings, doesn't mean they are alike. If we get to know her, we'll be able to see the differences." Hinata said with a small but stern voice.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Kiba said with a careless tone and continued to eat his food.
We continued to eat in silence when another team joined us. A boy with long brown hair sat beside Kiba, forcing Kiba to move so that the black-haired male could join them as well. Ino, the only one I knew among them, sat down beside Hinata, forcing me and her to move so that there were room for us all.
"Hi, Kiba, Hinata. Oh, and hi, Shino. New clothes?" the fat, brown-haired boy asked me, smiling down at us as he chewed on some chips.
"I'm not Shino." I said with my soft but monotone voice.
"What!?" the strangers said in union, the brown-haired male's voice sounding muffled since his mouth was full of chips.
"Wh-Who are you?" stuttered the girl, pointing at me with a finger while giving me a frightening look. Guess I really surprised them all. Heh, and I didn't even try.
"Can't you recognize me, Ino? You should remember your friends, or else you'll hurt their feelings when they call for you." I answered, looking at her through dark glasses.
"What?" she asked in confusion, quickening an eyebrow at me and lowered her hand down to her side.
"Just who are you? asked the black-haired boy. He had his hands in the pockets and his stance seemed a little too tense. Was he afraid of me?
"She's Shino's sister, Shinju." Hinata answered for me since I remained silent.
"Eh, Shino have a sister? I didn't know that." said the brown-haired boy while munching on another bite of chips. Just how much does he eat?
Apparently I'm gonna have a long talk with Shino when I get home.
"We didn't know either. Shino barely talks, after all, and he had never talked about his family." Hinata continued the conversation, oblivious to my thoughts. Of course they can't read my thoughts, that would just be... wrong.
"I see." responded the black-haired boy and his stance turned from tense to relaxed. Seems he wasn't scared of me anymore.
"Shinju... Shinju..." mumbled Ino under her breath, tapping her chin with a finger while her other hand supported the arm.
"Is there something wrong, Ino?" the black-haired boy asked her, looking sideways at her with his dark brown eyes. The other male looked at her as well as curiousity got over him. He had finished the chips bag in his hands and threw it away on the floor and pulled out a new one from one of his pouch. He opened it and started eating from that one.
"Oh, my god! Shinju!! You're from Ion's team, right?" Ino exclaimed suddenly and looked over Hinata's shoulder so that she could look at me.
"That is correct." I responded with a firm nod, silently happy that Ino recognized me without me giving her any hints.
"Yeah, I can't believe I'd forgot about you. But it's no wonder. When was it we last met? 2-3 years ago?" Ino said, her expression turning into a thoughtful one as she thought back to our past.
"4 years, to be correct." I corrected her.
"4 years! Oh, my. You have changed a lot, Shinju. You almost look like Shino. Kinda creepy." Ino said without much thought.
My heart clenched from her words. I didn't like it when people called me or my family creepy, but even so, I said nothing about it.
"You two must be Shikamaru and Choji. Ion had told me about you." I said, changing the subject. I looked at the two males from Ino's team, earning confused and curious stares from them.
"Yeah, that's us." Shikamaru responded, pulling one of his hands from his pocket and scratched his neck while Choji munched on his chips.
The others kept talking about everyday business, but I only listened with half an ear as my Parasific Insects told me that Shino was on his way here. I turned my gaze to the entrance and a second later, Shino appeared in the doorway. The others didn't notice him as they kept talking about something. It was first when he reached our table that he got their attention.
"Oi! Shino!" said Ino with a frown on her face. "How come you haven't told us you have a sister?"
"You didn't ask." Shino responded with his monotone voice, his hands in his pockets.
"Shino, can I talk with you?" I interrupted and made my way past the other girls, which were a little hard.
Shino swallowed hard. He knew I was mad at him, cause I only use that sentence when I was mad at someone. Which didn't happen very often.
I made it past the girls and stood in front of Shino, my head high and my back straight. Shino made himself as small as possible under my stare.
"How come that none of your friends knows about me?" I asked him after a moment of silence.
"They-they didn -" Shino stuttered, but still with a monotone voice. However, I interrupted him.
"I don't want to hear any lame excuse. Tell me why your friends doesn't know about me. I'm your sister, after all." I said matter-of-factually and narrowed my eyes at my older brother.
"I-I... I mean, that... Uh..." Shino stuttered by fear and by every second that passed, I could feel my rage built up. If he's not giving me an answer soon, I'll punch him and he knows that.
"It's because that... Um... I didn't... No, I mean, um..."
That's it! My fist collided with his chest and he landed on his butt a few feet away. I stomped once with my foot, showing my anger, and walked past Shino, out of the restaurant. I could hear someone was calling out to me, but I didn't pay attention to it.
I can't believe it! Shino's got a lot of friends, more than me, and he hasn't said a single word about me? I'm his sister and he's my brother and I talk about him as much as I can to my friends. I look up to Shino since he is stronger than me and I love him very much, but if this is how things goes, I'll just have to go with the flow then.
~~~
It has been two weeks now, since I last spoke to Shino. Yup, that's right, I was so mad at him, I didn't even talk to him. Sure, I made food for him, but that's the only attention I ever gave him.
I looked at a beetle crawling its way on a tree when Daiki called us for a meeting. I rise from my kneeling position and walked to the center of the field to meet my team.
"I have called you all for one simple reason: The Chunin Exams." Daiki started, lifting a finger up at the first part of the sentence.
"Woohoo! You're saying we gotta go to the Chunin Exams, Daiki-sensei?" asked the hyperactive Ion. He had fire in his eyes as he clenched both of his hands, lifted both of them up to his sides, looking determined for some reason.
"That is correct, but listen carefully!" He spoke fast to make sure Ion didn't interrupt him again. "The Chunin Exam is really dangerous. You only have to go if you want to. The exam will start in two days here on out. Make sure to think about this, all right?" He looked at all of us to make sure we all understood it.
"Yes, sensei." we all said in union. He handed us a piece of paper which were the permission to the exams. With that, he disappeared into a puff of smoke.
"You can back out already, Shinju. You know you're not strong enough for this." said Ryou, closing his eyes and crossed his arms with a small scoff.
"Shut up, Ryou! Of course she is!! She would definitely go to the exams with us, right, Shinju-san?" Ion said confidently and looks at me with stars in his eyes.
"I'll think about it." I responded. The truth was that I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure if I were strong enough for it.
I went back to look at the beetle on the tree, deep in thoughts. I could hear Ion train behind me, probably working on his Mind Transfer Jutsu. I should work with my jutsus, too, but Shino was the one who always helped me out with that and since I'm mad at him, I won't ask. I just have to find another one to help me out then.
Maybe I should ask Ino's team out? Well, I could at least try.
I rise from the ground and walked over to Ion. He knew immediately that I wanted to talk to him and he stopped his training currently.
"What is it, Shinju-san?" he asked me once I made it to him.
"Do you know were Ino is?" I questioned, putting my hands in my pockets as I waited for him to answer.
"Ino? Um, I think she's at Barbe-Q or she could be at home. Why are you asking?" Ion answered, giving me a curious stare as he asked me about my question.
"Just curious." I responded with a small shrug on my shoulders.
"Mm, all right." He said and went on with his training.
~~~
No, she was not home, so I decided to go to the barbecue restaurant.
I was so deep in my thoughts, that I bumped into someone. I looked up and saw Shikamaru.
"Sorry about that, Shinju. I wasn't watching where I was going." Shikamaru said with a bored tone and an expression that matched his tone.
"That's fine. I was just looking for you." I told him with a firm but monotone voice.
"For me? What for?" Shikamaru asked me confused.
Could I tell him? Would he laugh at me? No, he wouldn't. Would he?
"Shinju?" Shikamaru said since I didn't answer him right away.
"Sensei have assigned my team for the Chunin Exams," I started slowly. "But I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to make it." I ended with a small voice and looked down on the ground.
"So, you wanted to hear my opinion." Shikamaru said more like a statement than a question.
"Some advice would be nice."
"Hm, I can't say anything yet since I don't know you that well. But with further observations I should be able to tell you." Shikamaru said.
"Then I hope you're a quick catcher, cause there's only two days left for the Chunin Exam."
"I know, cause I'm preparing the exams." He sighed and lifted his hand from the pocket to scratch at his neck. "What a drag..."
"You're preparing the exams?"
"Yeah..." he said to me and put his hand in his pocket again.
Silence. I swear I could hear some cricket play their song if it wasn't for the crowd around us.
"Do you want to join me at Barbe-Q? I was just heading there." Shikamaru gestured behind him with a thumb.
"Sure." I said with a small nod.
We walked to the restaurant and joined Ino and Choji who waited for Shikamaru to come.
"Hey, Shikamaru, what took you so long?" asked Choji, eating some barbecue that he had made on the grill the restaurant offered.
"I bumped into Shinju and talked with her for a while." Shikamaru answered and sat down on the seat beside Choji.
"I see." Choji answered and went back to his fast-eating.
"Hey, Shinju, sit here!" said Ino while patting on the empty space beside her. I sat down, still with my hands in my pockets.
"So, how have you been? It's been two weeks, you know." Ino asked with a small smile on her face as she looked at me. It seemed to me she was done eating or she just chose to not eat anything at all.
I shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm doing fine. I only have one problem." Or two.
"Hm, what's that?"
"..."
Talking about this a second time is even harder...
"It's the Chunin Exams." Shikamaru answered for me. "Her sensei have assigned her team this year and she doesn't know if she's strong enough for it."
"Oh, is that all?" Ino said with an innocent tone.
"Don't talk like I'm going to some vacation. These are the Chunin Exams we're talking about and I have heard rumors that people died during these exams."
"Yeah, but I know that you'll make it. You are an Aburame, after all."
Did she just say what I think she did? She complimented me...even though it was indirect.
"..."
"Yeah, you'll be just fine." Choji said with his mouth full of food.
I felt a plug on my right arm and frowned in confusion.
Shikamaru looks at my arm as I pulled out the syringe that was the plug I felt on my arm. Someone must have done it, but who?
"Here, let me see it." Ino said. After a short observation, I could feel I was about to laugh. Wait - laugh? Why should I laugh now?
"Well, it's not poison. But I'll run a test just to be sure."
I started to chuckle.
Stop it, Shinju! There's nothing to laugh about!
"Hey, what's so funny, Shinju?" asked Choji.
I busted out laughing, it could be heard from all over the restaurant and out.
"What?" all three of them said in union. People in the restaurant stared at me and was whispering amongst themselves. I rise and smack my hands on the table.
"It's a laughing drug!" I said inbetween giggles.
"Ha, I got you! Hehehe!!" an unknown voice said.
I looked to my right to see a little dark haired boy laugh at me.